Computer help forum: EFI questions

Bob, you're both very knowledgeable and very quick! Sorry for making you cringe re the partition restore. I'm aware that at least Windows 7 Pro (I'm not sure about Home Premium) uses a separate partition from the one with C:\Windows. Now I know that EFI means you can't boot from a flash drive. But can't you boot from a CD or DVD still? Is there a way with EFI to go into setup and change the boot sequence to allow booting from a disc? I guess this is at the heart of my not understanding the recovery process with EFI. TIA

But so far we can't boot with the normal tools and access the HDD. The few EFI machines I have seen support USB booting but when you do that with the tools we've collected over the years, you can't get to the HDD.

The question about boot sequence varies with the make and model so my answer is "it depends."

-> The recovery process needs work. We can save the user files if we pull the HDD to some USB case or machine and re-gain normal access. If someone encrypts the drive then that was their choice and recovery is now way out there at a few thousand at the usual places.

In the past, if folk didn't backup it was usually a simple boot a cd/usb thing and let them fish out their files. COST? Not much.

Today, with EFI the cost of recovery of files has gone up.
Bob

It sounds like just like we had a learning curve re the BCD, we've got to get new tools for backup and recovery. I know there're too many tools out there for you to know the details about all or even most, but when Easeus says their backup / restore program supports Windows 7 and 8, I assume that means you could boot from a disc and recover your system just like we've been able to in the past. Obviously I will need to verify that with them! I live a short distance from a Micro Center store, so I'll inquire there as well. I don't mind searching, digging, and reading to keep up with these things even though a lot of people do. I always point out to my students that reading the materials we give them and using the online help will not give them leprosy!
At least now I know enough to ask about backup and recovery before I buy another computer. At the very least, if you back up to an external hard drive with something like Ghost or Easeus, you can plug that drive into another PC and get your data back (they both have programs to let you selectively recover files and folders). That would also apply to flash drive backups even though external hard drives are the far superior media (speed and reliability). <div>
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My prediction and what I'm seeing is that when a new Windows 8 EFI laptop (or such) machine won't boot, the user under the normal support systems loses all their files they didn't backup.

Microsoft had a few shots at creating a "restore and leave the user files standing" but this concept seems foreign to them. I've been to Redmond over the years for various reasons and the response is always "they should backup their stuff."

Apple rolled out this feature long ago.
Bob

Every new OS that MS comes out seems to have a new backup program since I started with DOS 3. I guess that's a bit of an acknowledgement that they haven't got it right yet. System Restore and shadow copies are a big help, but if you wait too long or can't boot at all, they're no help. It's easy enough for you or me to remove the hard drive, put it in an enclosure and get the data from it, but if somebody like my wife had to do that, she could die trying and never get it. Thanks for all the good info.

When MSFT issues a new backup system it rarely can import or use a prior version backup files. This issue showed up in XP, 7 and now 8. And is a prime reason I never use MSFT backup apps.

Bob

Dell says all their current systems have BIOS and none with EFI, and they don't think other PC manufacturers have it either. I keep seeing it mentioned in these forums, so I'm wondering who does have it and why you're warning about it. Is it because it is going to start being on new PCs soon? As it is, I don't know how to get prepared for it since aparently none of the PC manufacturers have implemented it yet, and the guy I chatted with couldn't say when it might be. He did say he doesn't think it's fully debugged yet. I just wonder how far off EFI is for laptops and desktops. Maybe we need to wait a year or two or three before worrying about it?

Sorry but I'm running into this today. Here's another article about it.
http://www.zdnet.com/more-fun-with-windows-8-uefi-secure-boot-fedora-and-ubuntu-7000009292/

EasyBCD just updated to give EFI support.

Your Dell folk could be right. I've had one encounter with another maker and they said they had UEFI and not EFI. So they are right.

If you don't have such a machine, you won't have to worry but at the office we see them a lot.
Bob